New Moon, Old Sign

When I write about a new Moon, I am always in the dark of the old Moon. And instead of the high energy of the full Moon, we have to wait for several days to see the proof of a new birth in the sky as she sets at sundown.

Unlike the full Moon where we are on a journey of greater and greater manifestation and integration, the new Moon begins a new cycle, preceded by the finish of the old–there is a sense of hurry, the light is fading. But to continue the complexity of the last few Moons, this one is in the last few degrees of the sign of Aries. The Moon will begin anew linked to the final days of the Sun in spring’s fiery initiation.

Like all new things, the new Moon is born from darkness. Here in New England we have experienced a winter like no other with unending cold and storms. The earth has been sealed shut under layers of snow. What will emerge, what plants and animals survived is still a mystery.

That most ancient of plants, the skunk cabbage is definitely up and out, unfolding in a spiral deeply rooted in dark swamps.

photo by Bob Fuhro

This new Moon of Saille, the Willow, celebrates water, the great transformer. The Willow belongs to the Moon, and grows close by or sometimes, knee deep in water. Willow is an herbal remedy, which cools fevers, and heals the ravages of damp diseases. White Willow bark is lovely tea for achy joints from arthritis and rheumatism, or any kind of swelling. Aspirin is Salicylic acid taken from the word Saille, Willow, and originally made from the Willow herself. Willow (Saille) is associated with the feminine energies of the earth and sky. This is a good time to stop to listen and respect your intuition, your powers of divination and your connection to ancestral spirits.

Are we not alive in a time of water consciousness? While the oceans fill with melting ice from both poles, many lands are turning to desert, and California, that paradise of fertility is now in crisis because water will not come when it is needed. Water in solid form has stood three feet deep for months, holding back spring for my garden.

Moon and Sun meet at 28° Aries, and listen to the Sabian Symbol held at this degree: ‘The Music of the Spheres … Attunement of Cosmic Order. The music of the Spheres is the celestial embodiment of principles of polyphonic interplay. The individual advancing ‘on the Path’ should seek to understand and realize his place in the vast scheme of mankind’s evolution, in the immense chord of the harmony of the universe… Listen to the inner voice.’ Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala.

http://www.crystalinks.com/dantespheres.jpg

The chart of this poignant moment on April 18th contains a powerful T-Square. Venus, our lady of beauty and love, and Saturn, teacher and he who constricts spirit into material form are in opposition. This is a combination most artists know well. Venus is there to inspire, while Saturn demands the ceaseless work needed to make inspiration into form. Neptune and Vesta square them, like a bow pulled back to shoot an arrow at the Point of Fortune in the chart. Neptune is the universal form of Venus….Cosmic Music of the Spheres. And what about the virgin goddess Vesta, Hestia of the hearth? She is the companion of Neptune in this triangle of love and mutable potential. A triangle is a stable form. Take something wordless, universal, full of music (Neptune), pair it with the sweet surety of the inner voice (Vesta), and bring it into form (Saturn) as an act of love (Venus). Take the tide of this new Moon where it wants to go!

The new Moon at 03 degrees of Leo arrives as a beautiful open Sunflower. This is the sacred plant of Leo, and both are ruled by the Sun. The birds planted this one in my garden from the seeds I fed them all winter. Each new Moon is a seed planted in dark moist soil, a secret at the moment of conception, but a plan is already held in its design. The pattern of the Sunflower is both an invitation to open and shine, like the Leonic Sun, and a call to walk the circular path to the inner Self. This new Moon celebrates the arrival of the Sun to Leo where he is most at home. For those of us on the East coast of North America, the new Moon will take place at 6:41 pm on Saturday, July 26th.

We have just finished a lunar cycle in the Moon’s sign of Cancer, now we celebrate the Sun in Leo. Cancer rules the fourth house in the astrology chart. This is the location of issues around the home of origin, where and how you grew up as well as the place where you live in this part of your life. Leo is located in the fifth house of creativity, love affairs and self expression. The House of the Moon and the House of the Sun are next to one another. We need a safe home to be creative and self expressive.

These are the days of heat and sunshine for the Northern Hemisphere. Leo celebrates our ability to shine no matter what season or where we live, and invites us to acknowledge our creative spirit, to give off light, and to be courageous in our life expression. The heart and spine are ‘ruled’ by Leo, and we all know that Leo the Lion is the ‘king of the beasts.’

Like the Sun, Jupiter has also recently moved from Cancer (the Moon’s sign) to Leo (the Sun’s sign). The three, Sum, Moon and Jupiter are in a rendezvous of joyous optimism and self confidence. This is our opportunity to feel the difference between egotism and self expression! The ego is always in a defensive position, while true self expression is a celebration of our gifts to share and the ability to appreciate the gifts of others.

Jupiter’s optimism is boundless. He is the largest planet in the solar system, and promotes expansion and the energy to carry out what might otherwise look impossible. Jupiter has a huge magnetic field, and transmits more radio emissions than our Sun. After all, he is Zeus, the King of the Gods!

I’ve had several astrology clients this week who were born with their Uranus close to this same degree of early Leo where the Sun Moon and Jupiter are located. This includes those born between 1955-7. The excitement and creative possibilities with Jupiter and a new Moon bouncing off your natal Leo Uranus (electric excitement, revolutionary possibilities) will provide the music for a cosmic dance!

Just to make the mix even more powerful for all of us, Jupiter, the Sun and the Moon make a square to Mars who has recently entered Scorpio, which he rules from an underground station. He adds a hint of mystery and depth to this trio of great ones in the sunshine of Leo. Mars in Scorpio is very powerful in a behind the scenes way. His square to the bright light of Leo suggests that there is more than sunshine to this aspect. At his highest level he will give that lovely sense of possibility a focus to the powerful creative urges that are at work at this time.

Pluto, lord of the underworld and Venus in Cancer eye each other across the chart. Like all oppositions they challenge us to think beyond polarities. To help that cause Mercury, also in Cancer is lined up to square Uranus, suggesting a unique way to think about old divisions. Most of us have our own black and white, positive and negative pillars we might consider in a neutral light like the High Priestess. Her power comes from her integration of opposites. She sits between the pillars of dark and light, with the symbols of male and female on the curtain behind her, while she wears the crown of new, full and waning Moon. All steps of the cycle are open to her because she values the entire process.

Lughnasadh or Lammas is celebrated around the 1st of August.

This is the time of the first harvest festival and commemorates the change from hunter gatherer tribal societies always on the move to settled agriculture. It is the season of bread and is the name for the month of August in Ireland, where traditional games are held in the honor Lugh’s foster mother who died as she plowed the hills for agriculture. It is a traditional time of weddings, but there is a sadness held in these days of harvest and sunshine. Perhaps it is a shared sadness with the cutting down of the grain, which has grown all summer. The light is beginning to retreat and there is a nostalgia for what was lost as the old paths of the ancestral migrations were forsaken, in exchange for the security of village life.

Lughnasadh is the opportunity to see the soul as a grain of corn. We can feel its cycle from seed to sprout to full grown grain, ground by the mill wheel, and turned into flour, which is mixed with yeast and water and fire to make bread! Here is a poem I wrote for Lughnasadh this year:

Nameless

How to speak of it:

the bramble path to the heart,

the wind as it rolls flat all that

grew in the sweet fields of May.

As we cut away the dead branches

small green whiskers grow out

in such unexpected places.

The season of bread and sorrow

fast approaches. Lughnasadh

casts a shadow in the hot and golden

fields of summer, where cicadas thrum.

Unspeakable how, the Moon, as she rises

catches the light of the run away Sun,

who lies hidden beneath the earth.

Sarah Fuhro July 12, 2014

May you dance under the Leo Sun with pleasure, and feel your unique expression unfold in whatever form it may take in your heart.

Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

At Lughnasadh, like a loaf of fresh bread, the 2015 Lunar Calendar will be ready for you to order. This is the best way to keep in touch with the Moon throughout the year! Potry and art celebrate each cycle of the Moon with lots of lunar information! https://www.thelunapress.com/

Each Moon cycle begins in darkness, just as we are initiated and nurtured in the dark womb. In the Northern Hemisphere plants are just now pushing their way out of the dark earth, while in the Southern Hemisphere, the season is turning towards the season of greatest darkness.

This Moon in Gemini is the Oak Moon, which contains the moment of the Sun’s greatest power and height, culminating in the Summer Solstice, the Sun’s moment of standstill before turning southward. The Duir Moon is a season of high culmination in the Druid calendar, for the Druid is the person with ‘Oak knowledge.’ In the description of Pliny (first century CE), the Druids performed their rituals in oak groves, and gathered mistletoe, sacred to the Sun from the Oak tree.

The oak is sacred in many cultures because of its ability to attract lightening, the direct communication of the gods. Most of the ‘top gods’ were lightening gods, Jupiter, Zeus, Thor, Shaddai in Hebrew, Tlaloc for the Aztecs. The oak’s huge size, strength and longevity represent the world, a home for many species, providing food, shelter, heat and shade to those who live in and around the king of the trees. Oak is often called the World Tree.

We are in the Moon cycle of the greatest power of the Sun here in the Northern part of the world. At the conjunction of the Sun and Moon (new Moon) the power is shared, and if we are open to the cosmos, we can feel that powerful moment in ourselves. Male and female, darkness and light blend as the two luminaries meet to leave our world, temporarily Moonless. When the Moon emerges to set at twilight a day or two later, she is robed in beauty.

The new Moon will be feeling an exact square from Neptune in Pisces; some of the cheery rationalism of Gemini may be awash in that watery planet’s dreams and illusory powers. Perhaps this moment of the new Moon would be a good time to stop, and if possible, to meditate and feel the chatter of the airy Gemini Sun and Moon, slow down into a chant.

Mars is also directly connected to the luminaries in a trine of air. There may be some action, conceived at this moment to be put into form as the Moon fills into her Sagittarian robes. The Sabian Symbol for the degree of Sun and Moon is pertinent to this chart’s symbols of vision or dream (Neptune) and Mar’s urgency towards action. ‘Aroused strikers surround a factory.’ Revolt against privileges.

The tension of the still ongoing Uranus Pluto square is enlarged through, a third square from Jupiter, and a fourth arm with Vesta and Ceres-two voices who speak for the earth and the ancient rites and rights of women. This will be an interesting combination for those who are stretched to their limit on low wages. Jupiter in Cancer is about food and the people. Pluto in opposition might be a stand in for the plutocrats who run corporations. Jupiter and Pluto are brothers but brothers often in conflict. Uranus in Aries, is the angry revolutionary in this combination, his opposition to the asteroids in Libra suggest those ancient forces so long forgotten may be rising to the surface.

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

How quickly a new Moon in Taurus has grown to be the large full Moon in Scorpio! Once again we are asked to balance two opposing impulses in our psyches and in our lives. We might best understand these impulses and energies if we think about Beltane and Samhain. Taurus in Beltane heightens our love of the physical and visible beauty of the earth, while the Scropio Moon reminds us there is another world invisible and mysterious.

At Beltane, when Taurus is at 15°, we celebrate fertility and the intermingling of male and female. The Pleiades rise at dawn and set with the Sun. The trees are full of blossoms and the ground is bursting with new energy. In many places on earth, this would be the time when cattle (Taurus) were taken into the mountains to graze. We feel potential, our own and the gardens we tend. The goddess is a maiden who walks the earth in a green mantle to meet and mingle with the green man.

Samhain celebrates the end of the harvest season at 15° Scorpio. We are keenly aware of death as a place to travel and explore. Seeds are stored or fall to earth to wait for another season of Beltane. We celebrate this season in darkness, and watch the Pleiades rise at sundown. In former times this was the season, when animals were selected to be butchered and stored for the winter. The goddess is a dark and aged woman, who reminds us of transformation into mystery.

When we come to this full Moon we realize that we, like the earth are experiencing these opposing seasons simultaneously. If we live in the Northern Hemisphere we are dancing with the delight of spring, but remembering how short is the season of growth and renewal, while in the Southern Hemisphere, the approach of winter comes with the promise of spring.

The particular full Moon of Scorpio has as companion, the planet Saturn who traditionally was the symbol of age and death. When the Moon and Saturn come together we may feel burdened by responsibility, and the need for achievement. Saturn makes this time of full Moon more restrained. We can’t forget our responsibilities even as we open to the light from the Scorpio full Moon lantern.

And the Grand Cross continues in this time (and chart) with Venus joining Uranus to make things intense, and quirky romantically. Love may come and go quickly with this combination, which includes the opposition from Mars in the sign of Venus and a square from Jupiter and Pluto. Mars has been traveling in retrograde motion since March. Now he is ready to stop on May 19 and turn direct. Mars in Libra and Venus in Aries are trying out each other’s signs. This is a good time for artists. Mars suggests action in the realm of Venus (art) and Venus in Aries is daring and open to new directions.

This full Moon is a challenge to face our fears (Moon and Saturn) and find the creative impulse to respond in new ways to what frightens us. There is a lot of sexual energy in this chart, which is a symbol of the season’s joyous embrace. Venus rules Taurus Sun, and we see her beauty all around us, while Scorpio Moon is ruled by Mars. The dance of Mars and Venus reverberates from all of these astrological themes. Find a way to join the ball!

Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com. or her Facebook page at: Sarah Fuhro * Star-Flower Alchemy / Astrology, Flower Essences and Tarot.

The quote from the Sufi poet of Persia, Rabia says much about this season and, the opportunities it offers. It is a season of earthy pleasures, the sensuality of the earth is opening all around us, this world. At the same time, it promises a deep connection the world we have forgotten, that world, where we come from and to which we will return.

This is a busy time in the cosmos. We have just experienced (Wednesday, April 23rd) an exact square of four powerful planets. We are still in range of that combination during this new Moon which is also a solar eclipse. This eclipse will be visible in Antarctica, Australia and the Southwestern Pacific and Indian Oceans. For the moment the light and influence of the Sun is cut off from the earth. This makes a new Moon during a solar eclipse especially a moment of new beginnings, a chance to start over from the point of view of both Sun and Moon. We are cut off from our source of light and life and then come back into the stream of the Sun’s rays, which fertilize our plans and our gardens.

We are in the lovely season of Taurus, and the song of birds and our own hearts can be heard here in the Northern Hemisphere where spring is firmly anchored. Beltane celebrations welcome the fire of the earth element. Beltane is the link between this world and the world of Faerie, nature spirits, devas. In order for the earth to be fruitful, it is necessary to work in alliance with this other world. Because the earth has been so injured and ignored by the human realm, many of the invisible world have given up hope, and have retreated to another dimension and time. The Fire Festivals, especially Beltane, provide gates between our two worlds of existence. In the Southern Hemisphere, this is the season of Samhain, when the otherworld is most accessible to those who listen and feel for the earth’s heartbeat. Beltane festival takes place as the Pleiades rise at dawn. The sisters have returned to daylight.

‘… the greyDawn and the Pleiades before him danced,Shedding sweet influence.’ — John Milton

The full Moon of Scorpio on May 14th will occur quite soon after the Beltane degree (15° Taurus) has been reached. Now is the time to begin the song and dance of earth praise and connection, and I will further explore the cosmic powers of Beltane at the full Moon. It is a time of appreciation for our bodies, for the food we eat, for the natural world into which we are interwoven. It is the season of the Lady who walks the land and where her foot falls, spring up the white flowers of the trefoil.

I married Isis on the fifth day of May

But I could not hold on to her very long

So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away

For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong. — Bob Dylan

You may experience, or continue to experience the powerful energies of the Grand Cross in Cardinal signs. Uranus and Mars continue to provide the shock and surprise element in the signs of the Self (Aries) and the other (Libra). Pluto and Jupiter continue their exploration of opposite signs; one to remake the workplace, and the other to deepen our connection to home life. Mercury is pressed close to the Taurus Sun and Moon and may sing lyrics never heard before. The potential of this time opens our eyes to the choices we make moment by moment to remake the world, a kinder and ever more creative place, where all are aware of their interconnection. The Sabian Symbol for this new Moon and Solar eclipse is: ‘ A fully decorated Christmas tree; the ability to create inner happiness in dark hours.’

Libra full Lunar Eclipse 2014 Can you feel the excitement and deep creativity arising at this moment? The chart for the lunar eclipse, which takes place Tuesday, April 15 at 3:42 am is a clear picture of the energy and possibility available to us all! The eclipse will be visible for those of us who live in the Americas, if we have clear skies.

This total lunar eclipse is the first of four total lunar eclipses over the next two years. You can find out more about the astronomical and traditional significance of these eclipses at this site: http://earthsky.org/space/what-is-a-blood-moon-lunar-eclipses-2014-2015. But this tax day eclipse is a cornucopia of excitement and action contained within its planetary patterns. It can already be felt as I write this and will reverberate long afterwards as well. The Moon has several companions, who give an earth consciousness message to this full Moon and eclipse. Ceres is exact to the degree of the Moon and represents the earth as mother, our home and provider. Her Greek name is Demeter, and, she has been involved in the pattern of new and full Moon charts over the last few months and year. She is the mother who mourns for her daughter, Persephone, and who brought winter to the earth in her sorrow.

The other very close companion to Moon and Ceres is Vesta. She is goddess of the hearth, the place where the law of women is found no matter how repressive the outer society. She represents the mysteries of women, which were squashed and supplanted by patriarchal invaders of the Mediterranean region five thousand years ago. In Roman society the vestal virgins were priestesses who kept the fires sacred to Vesta, and performed secret rites as students, and teachers of her mysteries. After thirty years service they could leave, marry and own property. Presently we are in the middle of a conversation about the role of women in society, government and as head of the family. Vesta and Demeter represent two personae that women play everywhere. They are in charge of fertility, food, and new life, but they are also seen as the arbiters of societal relationships and the mystery of the human body and the body of the earth. The crisis around the health of the planet, and our relationship to the earth becomes central as they take center stage with the full Moon this month.

And of course, Moon, Mars, and the two deities, Ceres and Vesta are all located in the sign of Libra, which is about balance, about relationship, about marriage, about justice. Venus, presently sandwiched between Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, rules Libra. The healing power of Chiron is perhaps through the path of universal love (Pisces) and the spiritual power of music and release (Neptune). And now we must look at the very powerful energies of the planetary squares underway. Uranus, the revolutionary, is about to make another perfect square to Pluto—he who will not be ignored or turned back. Uranus is quite violent in Aries, and is at this moment, conjunct Mercury. We have seen a series of angry confrontations between demonstrators, counter demonstrators, police and world leaders. Pluto in Capricorn exacerbates whatever tension exists in corporate and political spheres. From clients and friends I hear of angry clashes in the work place, Capricorn. Mercury, conjunct Uranus in Aries, is not diplomatic, and war talk, between individuals and nations can be expected. Perhaps the fact that Mars (ruler of Aries) is in Libra will balance out the quick and hostile anger that can arise from all this Aries energy! In a few days, Mars, in retrograde, will form an exact grand cross with Uranus, Pluto, and Jupiter. The potential for manifestation of good and bad is great. Jupiter is opposite Pluto in the sign of Cancer. There is an expansion of family concerns. Pluto and Jupiter are brothers. Jupiter rules the upper world; Pluto ruled the underworld. They are equal in power, although not always in visibility. Once again we are given the opportunity to contemplate our relationship to opposite forces. The more we can absorb difference in ourselves and society, the more likely that this can be a time of deep human evolution. With our huge population, we have no choice but to move as lightly as possible, to dance together. This Aries Sun and Libra Moon are symbolic of the forces to harmonize and to differentiate, which we all experience, and must finally move beyond. The Sabian Symbol for the Sun speaks to the moment, and is beautifully illustrated by the Rider-Waite X of Wands: ‘A man possessed of more gifts than he can hold: obsession by potentiality.’

The Sabian Symbol for the Moon can sum up this chart, which ricochets between Aries and Libra, Venus and Mars: ‘An eagle and a large white dove change into each other.’ Sabian Symbols are from An Astrological Mandala by Dane Rudhyar.

Saturday morning at 3:00 am, we will have the birth of a new Moon cycle. Pisces Sun and Moon snuggle between Neptune in Pisces and Chiron in Pisces. The potential for the dream, the vision, the healing power of meditation are all present, so is confusion, illusion, and mystification. Pisces is the realm where the spiritual is as tangible as the material, but for those of us locked into a material viewpoint, it can be a place of foggy confusion.

To put this all into words from the wordless ocean of Pisces, Mercury stands by in Aquarius. He has only recently turned direct, and so has visited these watery shores, and will revisit them as he goes forward through Pisces. Here he is looking over his shoulder to recall his journey in reverse from Pisces into Aquarius.

We need his Aquarian mental clarity to translate the poetry of this particular Moon event. Neptune is a ruler of Pisces and so deepens the message of Sun and Moon adrift in a sea of oneness. The healing nature of this sign is compassion, an opportunity to feel our deep connection with all. Vulnerability becomes a means to deepen our understanding; Pisces is the ‘give away’ sign before the noisy entrance of the Sun into Aries and the Spring Equinox.

The Pluto/Jupiter opposition is in this mix as well. Pluto in Capricorn with his powerful work of breaking down the old structures of government and business is in a sextile with the Piscean players. His contact is most exact with Chiron, the healer. Perhaps we will begin to envision a new and more compassionate form of healing. As we remember that our bodies are the healers, we can trust the process of recovery, rather than see it as a battle to be won or lost. Chiron, the great healer of the ancient world was a centaur, part man, part horse, and his connection to body recalls this animal part of our self, who knows what it needs to be healthy.

This is the Moon of Fearn, the Alder, a water loving tree, just as Pisces is a water loving sign!

Alder trunks are the pilings under the older sections of Venice and many medieval cathedrals. The tree is linked to Bran the Blessed, who used his body as a bridge for his followers to cross the river Linon to safety. He is a bridge between the worlds, and, after his death, his tribesman carried his head for seven years while he sang and prophesied. The head of Bran was then buried under the White Tower of London and is guarded by ravens, his special bird. The Alder can be used as a blood purifier and lymph cleanser. It can guard the body as Bran guarded his people.

Jupiter in Cancer makes an exact trine with Sun and Moon as well as spilling over onto Neptune and Chiron, while standing in opposition to Pluto. Uranus makes a square to both Pluto and Jupiter, creating a triangle with revolutionary potential. During this ongoing square between Pluto and Uranus we have seen a number of revolutions seem to crumble into chaos, rather than open to possibility. Is there another way to create change?

The Sabian Symbol for this new Moon is seems to refer to this quandary: Men traveling a narrow path, seeking illumination. The capacity inherent in every individual to seek, at whatever cost, an entrance to a transcendent realm of reality. Walk ON!